- Vika, you had quite fast sports carreir. Being 14 years
old you became World Champion. WHy did you decide to quit so early?

- Yes, it's true that I left gymnastics being 18 years old.
Perhaps, the reason is that I started when I was little. When I was 12 I left
Zaporozhie, where my parents lived, and went to sports internat. I felt myself
very lonely. It was boring without my relatives, even though practically all
time was taken by trainings. On weekends I came to Kreschatyk, bought a kilogram
of apples (all other tasty things were forbidden to hold the weight), sat on a bench
and watched people. If to be true, I overtrained. By the time my parents moved
to Fastof, I had to get up very early to catch the train for 5.30 to be in time
for the training. I returned home at 10 pm. On one of the USSR Championships I
came 10th and I was very disappointed by that. That's why I decided to quit

- Did you parents influence your choice in sport?

- My father is a master of sport in cycling, in his time he
was one of the coaches on Ukrainian National Team. He paid big attention to my
sports life. Mum was always very disappointed when I left to competitions,
started crying. We tried to protect her from such emotional stresses. At first I
went in for artistic gymnastics, but I was very coward. I was afraid of doing
exercise on beam. And after I broke my hand, I never returned to that gym. When
I was sick, I once watched World Championships in rhythmic gymnastics. I even
remember that Galina Shugurova won there. I liked her very much. And so I told
my father that I will start doing rhythmic gymnastics

- How did you become a coach?

- I became a coach very accidentally and mostly thanks to
Anya. When I finished my sports carreir, I was very far from gymnastics. From
time to time I watched competitions. My children were very little then and
that's why I was mostly a housewife. When Anechka grew a bit, I started to be a
coach of aerobics on Dynamo stadium, then, in the middle of the 80s, aerobics
was very popular. We had many groups. When Anya wanted to start doing gymnastics
(from 4 years Anya was dancing in an ensemble "Kiyanochka"), I asked
my coach Albina Nikolayevna Deruigina to take her to Deruigins school. But there
there was no group for Anya's age and Albina Nikolayevna proposed me to take
some girls and start coaching them. That's how it happened.

- What sports qualities did your daughter take form you?

0 I think she took a lot of persistence from her father. She
is very purposeful. At first she even had a kind of finatism. but in the good
meaning of the word. After trainings she watched video tapes with different
competitions at home, was interested in gymnastics life. She came to understand
that gymnastics is her work, which she must do very precisely. However, sport
isn't just hard trainings, but also the ability to switch. Anya, the same as me
in my time, it's difficult to do. She is always thinking about gymnastics

- You married Vladimir being very young. How did your
parents take it?

- They weren't against. However, in any case such message is
taken by parents very intensely. There were no problems with my mom, but we had
to "prepare" my father in such called informal way on nature, near the
lake. I think that all fathers especially quiveringly
concern to bringing up girls. They are confident for girls, because it's a man.
By the way, Volodya also thinks a lot about Anya even now

- Did you parents like Volodya and
why?

- He is very self-confident. My mom
noticed at first his decency. At that time football player of Dynamo were
beloved by all female population of the USSR. His glory was huge. And I can't
say that Volodya was rich or something like that.

- Gymnasts are always in the gym,
football players - on the field. How did your roads cross?

- Me and Volodya were in the USSR
National Team. We all trained on the base in Novogorsk. Volodya was even a
little proud that he knows me and can chat with Ukrainian. It was pleasant for
me as well to see him. And we got to know each other more on the wedding of Oleg
Blokhin. Volodya invited me to dance

- Did you have time to go to dates?

- From time to time. Volodya took me
after trainings. At first till the train, than he went with me for some stops
till the station "Kyiv-Volinsky". So, the more our relations
developed, the more way we did together in the evening

- Peace, confidence in the family is
very important for the mood of football player before the game. Did Valeriy
Vasiliyevich speak on such topics with female structure of the team?

- Wives had some trips with husbands
with acceptation of Lobanovsky. Guys were returning after Championships Cup
through Moscow and Valeriy Vasiliyovich organised the trip of wives. We came for
3-4 days and then the team went somewhere further. We came to husbands to
Novogorsk as well and even once, when Adelanda Pankratiyevna, wife of Lobanovsky
asked, we went on gathering to Germany. She was very interested in our life and
children. We met a lot on matches. Once Volodya had some problems, psychiatry
problems - he didn't play for a while because of the injury. Valeriy Vasiliovich
phoned a lot, controlled, even remembered me to change compresses.

- Did you accept the sports choice of
your children?

- Sasha, as most of boys, likes
football. There was a time when he took up tennis. At first he had good results,
he was a leader in his age, some time she was training in Spain. However, for
serious professional studies a lot of money are needed and so we decided to stop
on that stage. He studies now in Ukrainian-American university, where everybody
talks only English. He knows fluently Spanish and German as well. Sports
perspective of my daughter I don't want to name. She has her aim, she works a
lot, is on the 2nd course of University of Physical Education. She is very
tired, so it would be wicked to make her study for another "normal"
profession

- Who of the children brought up
another one more?

- Anya was very active, I would even say
energetic and so she was the main. When I went with her in the street, I
couldn't even say Hi to anybody, Anya has already gone somewhere, has already
broken something...There was a total mess in the flat, she went to all
cupboards, boxes, we had to tie everything. Once Anya locked me on the balcony.
It was cold, 9th floor, nobody will come and there are 2 small children in the
flat. I had to break the window. And Sasha could sit in sand for hours, I've
never even heard him, he was very calm

- Did father took part in bringing up
children?

- When Volodya was coming, I didn't
exist anymore. Children were around him. Sasha loved constructors. We didn't
hear about Lego then and Volodya was bringing everything from his abroad trips.
They could collect something for hours. Anya, in the exact meaning of the
phrase, was on Volodya's head, she did his hair, made ponytails. He tried not to
move in such moments. Volodya liked to created different games with changing
clothes. Now we can't even gather altogether for supper. I have training till 8,
children are on studies as well. Volodya tries to come from Turkmenia when he
can. He can't live alone without us. Sometimes I go to him. We even went only
once with the whole family at the seaside, but then national team was on
gathering in Yalta

- Volodya was for many years the
captain of Dynamo. How do you think which qualities helped him to be elected?

- He is very communicative, calm,
self-confident, even diplomatic, doesn't have any conflicts. He always listens
to the point of view of the listened, even if his opinion is different, even
though he creates his opinion about this person.

- Vika, you said that you choice to
become a coach was accident. Who would you like to be?

- I like the work of designer. I always
wanted to go on courses. I'm waiting till my main manager, Sasha, finishes his
studying and will take on him the decision of organisation questions and I will
be able to give him the financial side as well. Maybe then we'll create
something

- Now you and daughter do the same
thing - gymnastics. What do you work on?

- We have strong fight with the weight,
especially after holidays. Physical tireness can go, but it's difficult to say
"no". Rhythmic Gymnastics has some specific sides - having spent many
hours on training, we can lose only little weight. For example, in football for
90 minutes on the field, player can lose up to 4 kilogramms, and gymnast for 6
hours training - only 1 kilogramm. I even have to cook different dishes for
children. We eat in different rooms as well, so that Anya didn't get nervous
about the tastes

- What do you think changed in
gymnastics since you retired?

- Huge work on training need great endurance. Even
though, nowadays many children come to gymnastics, many of them retire being
12-14 not having show high results. Parents also make children believe that if
they are 15 and they haven't achieved anything, it means that they won't do
anything in the future. I think such parents are mistaken. There are many cases
when girls being very young aren't interesting on the carpet at all, and then on
senior competitions they can do something more. On the contrary, other can be
only Championships among children. Motivations to come to sport changed as well.
If earlier parents want girls to learned how to walk beautiful, move, have
beautiful body, then now there are more financial and competitive side of the
sports. The rules changed really a lot/ In the past 2 years they changed 3
times. Soon will be started a new serie of competitions, where we'll show what
we learned during winter. I think that gymnastics became less expressive and
artistic. Gymnastics and coach always think about the elements and so they
forget about expression. It's difficult to produce something new and original

- Talent and hard-work can differ a
usual person from every sportsman. And what quality can be called an exclusive
quality of rhythmic gymnastics?

- Appearance of girl, how she can
show herself on the carpet, effect, grace play huge role in our kind of sport.